Milford tax increase unavoidable

MILFORD  Mayor James Richetelli Jr. said no matter what comes of the proposed school and city budgets for 2004-05, a tax increase is "unavoidable."

Brian McCready

Published
12:00 am EST, Monday, March 8, 2004

Tonight the Board of Finance will meet at 6:30 in conference room B of the Parsons Government Complex to vote on the proposed budgets.

Richetelli released his $79 million city budget in February. The package calls for a 6.68 percent increase. The Board of Education is requesting a $70.93 million budget for 2004-05, which calls for an 8.12 percent increase over the current $64.9 million spending plan.

The current combined city and school budget is $139.1 million and the tax rate is 29.20 mills.

"Its unavoidable," Richetelli said of a tax increase. "Given the decrease in state and federal aid and we just found out we may lose more state aid."

The mayor said Friday the city could lose an additional $680,000 in state aid and the citys state delegation to fight to ensure against the cuts.

Richetelli said 96 percent of the city side increase is because of the increased cost of wages, benefits, and fuel. Any reductions would lessen city services.

"If we want to maintain the current level of services its what it will cost us," Richetelli said.

Richetelli said the city has already implemented numerous cost saving measures that are saving millions of dollars.

He said by merging the police and fire retirees pension obligation into the general pension fund it will save taxpayers $6 million over three years. Also, the city going self insured has saved $800,000 over two years. The city has refinanced its debt recently, saving another $600,000, Richetelli said.

"This budget pays for the existing city services," Richetelli said. "There is no new personnel, services, or programs. To cut wed be looking at a decrease in city services."

Firn said the school board budget is being driven unfounded obligations the district was forced to implement this current year.

He said a spike in enrollment forced the system to hire additional staf, and a state special education lawsuit also resulted in a $500,000 impact on the system.

An arbitration award that granted 651 teachers an average of a 5.2 percent increase was also more than $800,000 the board anticipated, Firn said.

He also said it will cost the school system $500,000 to make curriculum changes in order to meet the requirements of No Child Left Behind legislation.

Salaries represent 75 percent of the budget, and Firn is proposing 11 additional staff members costing $419,153 to meet enrollment and special education needs.